Introduction

Plotc is a two-dimensional plotting program that allows the user to create various plots without becoming an expert in the use of, or even knowing about, the baseline graphics routines. Plots can be created consisting of multiple curves and/or sets of symbols. The curves can be plotted as solid lines, lines with symbols (vector-symbol plots), or in a sequence consisting of different line types (solid, dashed, dot-dashed, etc.) An option is provided to allow a multiple curve plot with each curve offset in the x-direction by some user-specified increment. Plots can be created with or without axes, labels, and legends. Axes can be either standard or logarithmic. The scaling of the axes can be done automatically, or specified by the user. Colors may be specified for all elements of the plot.

A special-case version of plotc, called plotc_p3d, may also be used. Plotc_p3d creates two-dimensional line plots from the xyz and q files created by many CFD codes for use with the three-dimensional plotting programs Plot3d and FAST. Plots may be created showing the variation of a function along any of the coordinate lines in the three-dimensional flow field.

Plotc is written in Fortran 90, and is normally run on a Linux workstation. The plot may be displayed on the graphics monitor using OpenGL graphics routines, and a PostScript file is created that may be printed on a PostScript printer or viewed with a PostScript previewer. The OpenGL and PostScript plots are created separately; i.e., the PostScript plot is not merely a screen capture of the OpenGL plot. The OpenGL plot is intended as a "preview". The PostScript plot allows a wider variety of fonts to be used, with subscripts/superscripts, special symbols, etc.

A slightly earlier version of plotc is available for SGI systems, with the on-screen plot created using SGI's gl routines. Much earlier versions of plotc have also been run on IBM, Sun, and DEC workstations, and a Convex mainframe.